England's injury crisis continues to ease with head coach Stuart Lancaster revealing on Monday that Tom Wood and Courtney Lawes should be back training for the week building up to the clash with Ireland in Dublin on March 1st.
Wood and Lawes, both sidelined by ankle injuries, missed England's 21-16 win over Wales in last Friday's RBS Six Nations opener in Cardiff and neither will be back in time for Saturday's round two meeting with Italy at Twickenham on Saturday.
Brad Barritt (knee ligaments), Kyle Eastmond (shoulder) and Geoff Parling (knee ligaments) are all back in training today, but they have not yet been confirmed for inclusion. No return date has been set for prop David Wilson (neck).
As expected Lancaster is not contemplating changes for Saturday, beyond Parling coming on to the bench as specialist lock cover if he can prove his fitness that is.
Meanwhile Scotland try-scorer Dougie Fife insists the Dark Blues proved in Paris why they are scared of no one in the tournament.
The Scots opened their campaign with a 15-8 defeat to France, but really it was a gift of a victory for Les Bleus as their guests' indiscipline handed Camille Lopez five chances to punish them with his boot.
Fife crossed over with the only score of the match but the Scots had plenty of stand-out performances from the likes of the Gray brothers, Richie and Jonny, outhalf Finn Russell, centre Mark Bennett and Stuart Hogg at fullback.
The signs of encouragement even extended to the substitute bench where Fife emerged from, after Tommy Seymour limped off with a hip injury, to score just before the half-time break.
Redemption will now be the main aim ahead of Sunday’s Murrayfield clash with Wales and Edinburgh wing Fife insists Scotland can provide the Dragons with another scorching after they lost their first clash with England.
The 24-year-old said: "We watched the Wales-England game on Friday. It looked very physical and the breakdown was more competitive than it has been in the last few Six Nations, so that will be a big part of the match next week when we play Wales.
“They will be disappointed and will be looking for a backlash — but so will we.
“We respect every side in this tournament but we don’t fear any team. We have the ability to beat anyone in this competition.
“It was very disappointing the way we didn’t get a result on Saturday. We felt we could have won it and it could have gone either way in the end. We definitely had the belief that we could come to Paris and win.”
Seymour lasted just 18 minutes before succumbing to injury and Scotland doctors say he will require “further assessment” before they will be able to pass him fit for the meeting with Warren Gatland’s side.
But regardless of his fitness levels, Fife believes he has done enough to claim a starting role.
“We’ve got a talented squad with a lot of good wingers,” he said. “But hopefully I have done enough to keep hold of the jersey. Fingers crossed anyway.
“That try has got to be up there with the most important I’ve ever scored. Scoring at the Stade de France is the type of thing you dream about.”
